downtown and back again

dear Joshua,

I took the kids downtown to buy you a birthday gift this afternoon. I know you said no birthday gifts this year . . .but I think you're really going to like it! please don't check the credit card statement within the next 24 hours, ok? you like surprises, I like you to be surprised. . . so don't look!

also, a nice thing happened as it began to rain and we ran to catch the bus back home - - we bumped into our downstairs neighbor! She asked us to wait just ten minutes for her as she did one last errand, so that we could ride back together . . . and we had the nicest bus ride home with her; we talked a bit about last summer when our church tried to find ways to love the city of Pamplona during the festivals (you remember, of course, that she was the one who actually offered some really good suggestions when we did that, right?)
let's invite her for a coffee some time this month; I think I would really enjoy that!

how has England treated you this week? not to much rain, I hope! and not too many stuffy, hot tubes - - because I am remembering that I sent you off with only two dress shirts and a couple of t-shirts (you are a good traveler, my love)

good night!
Naomi

throwing the newspaper at Joshua was no accident

I was enjoying flipping through the newspaper in our local coffee shop yesterday morning; an interesting article caught my eye - - it was titled "other religions in Pamplona" and began with: (loosely translated)
"even though Pamplona is a small city, and primarily Catholic, in the Navarran capital there are seven other religions present . . . . "
after a fairly accurate snippet describing the Evangelical faith, the newspaper article went on to describe the doctrines of the the Jehovah's Witnesses . . .
"the J.W.'s, who arrived in Pamplona about 40 years ago, share the same basic beliefs as the Evangelicals"

the blood drained from my face, my hand went up to my throat, and I threw the newspaper into Joshua's hands gasping "read this!"

thirty minutes later, we were home.
I was in the kitchen making lunch,
the boys had their shirts stripped off and were in a wrestling match on the living room floor,
and Joshua - - the paper strewn beside him on the couch, was writing a letter to the editor.
I knew I could count on him.

The thing about Joshua

"the thing about Joshua," I told a friend today,
"is that as he studies modern society, he is overwhelmed with the intellectual complacency that exists; he believes that as a whole we are failing to ask enough questions as well as failing to think critically when questions are asked of us"
"mmmmm . . . " said the friend.
"and Joshua wants to stir up the waters" I told her.
"maybe I'll bring a friend with me" she said.

so he's at it again - - Joshua has been preparing a talk to present this Friday evening at our community's cultural center. This time it's titled:
Catholic without Catholicism?
reflections of a "separated brother"

please pray for Joshua tomorrow! Pray that he will provoke the right questions, that he will be able to share grace and truth as questions are asked of him, and that God will use Joshua in our community to sharpen and woo the minds that God has created to adore Himself.

The Picture Bible - - the timeless stories of the Bible, in full color! (it's what the cover says)

remember the The Picture Bible? I seriously used to spend hours upon hours pouring over this comic-style bible ("how could Jezebel be sooo beautiful and yet so eeeeeevil?" I would ask myself, "and were those things hanging around her face earrings . . . or part of her headdress?")
Well, fantastic Rachel tracked down a copy of this classic for Malachai and, of course, he loves it.
So I pulled him and the bible up onto my lap last night (one of my unwritten, unspoken, unprocessed resolutions for 2009 is to stop making my kids have to beg me so much for me to sit down with them and read them their bibles), and I read him the account of when Elijah throws his cloak onto Elisha - - calling Elisha to follow him. Well, if you remember, Elisha is willing but asks if he can first say goodbye to his Ma and Pa, . . . and . . . Elijah says yes.

"very interesting", I thought, "doesn't Jesus say the exact opposite to his followers? weird."

At some point later on in the evening, Joshua - - who had, the whole time that I was reading to Malachai, been sitting across the room translating some book into Spanish, said to me,"I wonder if Jesus' call to the disciples was purposefully juxtaposed to Elijah's - - blatantly identifying his person as greater and his call as higher than Elijah's."

Joshua's pretty awesome that way.

he doesn't just wonder about the mystery, he finds an answer.

I think I want to do more of that in 2009 - - So I there's my other resolution for 2009 (and look, I'm writing it down!)

p.s. yes, I know I had to write down my first resolution to tell you that it was unwritten; just gloss over that part.

you and me, we make a good team

I teach our sweet children important things like: "when you brush your teeth and spit the toothpaste out into the sink, make sure to splash some water onto the trail of toothpaste foam and wash it down the drain."
You teach our sweet children things like: "Josu, where is God? yeeeees, He is everywhere; is he everything? noooooooooo . . . that's pantheism, and that is a false view of God"

what I like about you. #1 in a series of about a billion

on the days when I'm all tired and worn out from the ever-so-important duties of keeping this home a well oiled machine, you pull out the Chocolate Crunch cereal (the crunch cereal that has been sitting in the shelf for about six months and is all chewy and stuck together and that you recently swore to never eat again because of its general disgustingness)and are like - - "no really babe, don't fix me dinner; I really want to eat crunch cereal"
sigh.